Power Trip?

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer apologized yesterday, presumably for taking part in a prostitution ring. Apparently he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced hooker.

I don’t know all the facts here. But it does strike me as an example of hypocrisy on the part of an overzealous, (often) self-appointed arbiter of morality.

One small but telling detail of the story is that Spitzer used the name George Fox, apparently one of his close friends, when checking into the Mayflower Hotel. I mean, who does that? Shiests and uses a good friend’s name while shiesting? How much effort would it have taken for him to just make up a name? It’s a small detail, but sheds light on the man’s selfishness.

In addition to terribly selfish, the whole thing seems asinine. Ain’t no woman alive worth $5,500 an hour. Although according to one young man with whom I discussed this story, “Paying all that money is a power trip.”

Another man with whom I spoke about this story remarked that men who patronize high priced call girls generally regard such high fees as insurance against getting diseases. In that respect, I would give Governor Spitzer “credit,” for at least indulging his vice in a way that would be unlikely to physically endanger his wife. Except for news reports that, according to the FBI affidavit, the call girl said she had been told that Spitzer, a return client, might ask her “to do things [she] might not think were safe.”

If that’s true, it’s whole lot worse. It’s one thing to indulge one’s weaknesses and be less than perfectly faithful. It requires another level of selfishness to endanger one’s partner’s physical health.

Beyond the professional hypocrisy here (as New York attorney general, Spitzer prosecuted operators of prostitution rings), this situation reflects a lack of personal integrity that is not unique to Eliot Spitzer, but demonstrated by loads of people who choose to be family men and women, then make a practice of infidelity. Why do people with these proclivities get married or stay married? It’s not like this is 1950. If you love hookers to the point that as a father of three you feel you must make a practice of visiting them – and engage in risky practices, no less – maybe you ought to consider the merits of the single life?

It often does seem as if people, especially those who marry young and spend their lives conforming to society’s dictates to achieve conventional success, are so bored and starved for spontaneity and excitement they wind up being unfaithful and/or unfulfilled spouses.

If you love to play around that much, why not stay single? Every great novel and even every crumby Hollywood movie reflects the same essential truth: life is lived best when one is true to oneself. If that means staying single, stay single!

I guess those who get trapped in these situations want it all, however. Maybe that’s the human condition, too. But he could have at least worn a condom, for heaven’s sake.

This entry was written by Heather Robinson and posted on March 10, 2008 at 4:14 pm and filed under Blog. permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Keywords: womens-interest. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. */?>